Hip-hop producer beating a path to success

By Tunette M. Powell - Express-News

Published
12:00 am CDT, Sunday, May 16, 2010

Marcus Brown was in search of a sound.

Before and after school at Judson High School, during lunch and between classes, he gathered other kids — a group known as “Da Booth” — at soda machines to battle rap and perform pop, lock and drop-it dance routines, all the time thumping a couple of pencils against the vending machines.

After high school, Brown graduated from pencils to drumsticks. He learned to read sheet music and play the drums and piano.

Now, at 24, he is vending beats for cash.

From a makeshift corner office in his mother's two-story home, Brown has edged his way into the rap game as the co-founder and creative director of Red Prodigy, a music company that has pumped out more than 1,000 instrumental rap, R&B, pop and rock beats.

Brown divides his time between rapping and producing. And while his rap career hasn't taken off, the production side has.

He produced “Homegurl” by Dallas rapper Bone, which peaked at No. 51 in Billboard's Hip-Hop and R&B Songs and Singles Chart. The song, which coupled an original beat with a sample from an obscure song called “That's My Juvie” by female rapper Magnolia Shorty, also led to Bone's major label deal with Def Jam Records, according to the label's website.

“(Red Prodigy) sat down with me and came up with a concept,” Bone said. “They found something that I could rap to and it worked.”

“Homegurl” went from a college-party hit to a radio and club banger after an independent music executive heard the song at a club in Atlanta. Bone then was flown to Atlanta to audition for Def Jam President L.A. Reid. He performed two songs, “Homegurl” and “I Got Paper” — both produced by Brown.

These days, business is picking up for the fledgling producer. Brown produced a remix for “Homegurl” that features Texas rappers Slim Thug and Chalie Boy. He also produced Chalie Boy's newest single, “Let it Drop,” and he's working on several songs with rappers from 50 Cent's crew G-Unit.

In the world of hip-hop, Brown said, it's important to dress for success.

“I have to look like I've already made it,” he said, adding that he wears $500 Gucci shoes and $200 Versace shades. “It's a ‘fake it until you make it' concept. You've got to look the part.”

He pays for that pricey look with a $50 mixing board, a $100 beat-making keyboard and $400 speakers, which produce a $5,000 sound — the going rate for a Red Prodigy song.

Rap producers like Brown don't just make beats — they also create song concepts. In the studio, Brown has as much say on the flow of a song as the rapper does. If the rapper is the lead singer, he's the band.

Then, as producer, Brown also markets his songs, passing them to DJs at clubs and radio stations.

“Marcus is a straight composer,” said his cousin Jeremy “JB” Brown, 23, the other half of Red Prodigy. “I compare him to Mozart.”

After high school, both cousins attended universities in the Houston area. At that time, the duo recorded songs in an apartment closet using an Internet chat microphone. They entered talent shows and pestered DJs at clubs and college parties until their music was played.

Eventually, Jeremy moved back to his Fort Worth home; Marcus returned to San Antonio four years ago to help care for his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. He also held down a full-time job selling televisions. There was no time for music.

“I put my family first,” Brown said. “I let the music die.”

But not for good.

True to the tattoo on his chest that proclaims “Melodies Never Die,” Brown dusted off his keyboards and mixer and gave music another go last year. He found inspiration in classical music. The first songs he made after the three-year hiatus included samples of Mozart's works.

“(Mozart) inspired me to get back to music with the Requiem Mass,” Brown said. “Even though it was at the end of his life, it was still some of his best work. He was the type of musician that broke the rules.”

He juggles 12 semester hours with a full-time job at a Social Security Administration office. And the music beckons Brown seven days a week: He promotes local artists at clubs, he's a familiar face on the set of music videos, and he engineers and produces music at studios across San Antonio.